Michael Kownacky

We’re back at La Scala for this week’s Sunday Opera (8/16 3:00 p.m.) and their production of Claude Debussy’s “Pelleas et Melisande” which is based on a play by Maurice Maeterlinck with a symbolic story focusing on the doomed love of the title characters.

Shakespeare seems to get credit for a great many things, but this time, he deserves it even if the quote is a bit “off.” We’re “Gilding the Lily” on this week’s Dress Circle (8/16 7:00 p.m.), well, we’ve amassed songs about beauty and its secrets, dressing to impress or excess, and a few make-up tips from a variety of musicals.

It’s off to Barcelona and the Gran Teatre del Liceu and a recent production of Gaetano Donizetti’s “Elixir of Love” on this week’s Sunday Opera (8/9 3:00 p.m.)

People want a great many things, and we’re back to some songs that showcase that on this week’s Dress Circle (8/9 7:00 p.m.). However, these “I want” songs are in disguise as the “want” doesn’t appear in the title.

Join us at the Glyndebourne Festival this week on the Sunday Opera (8/2 3:00 p.m.) for a perennial favorite, Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” which is subtitled “the Mad Day” or “the Day of Follies.”

We actually heard several people say, “Can you believe it’s August already?”, and to be honest, we certainly can. As always, we’re starting off the month on this week’s Dress Circle (8/2 7:00 p.m.) with pieces from some of the shows that opened in New York this month, and we’re continuing with our look at them through overtures and opening numbers.

We’re back at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden for this week’s Sunday Opera (7/26 3:00 p.m.) and Modest Mussorgsky’s only completed opera “Boris Godunov” which had its world premiere in 1871 after being rejected in 1870 because it had no female roles. Mussorgsky rewrote the opera, and when it was staged, it used the recycled sets and costumes from Pushkin’s play (written in blank verse) which had premiered in 1870.

July 26 is National Aunt and Uncle Day! Who knew? We found out before it was too late, so this week’s Dress Circle (7/26 7:00 p.m.), we’re going to be celebrating some aunts and uncles through stage and screen musicals along with at least two television series. Since there were actually so few songs dedicated to aunts and uncles, we’ve gone far afield and found some interesting and forgotten/rare pieces.

We’re off to the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden on this week’s Sunday Opera (7/19 3:00 p.m.) and their 2025 production of Leos Janacek’s “The Makropulos Affair” or “The Makropulos Case” or “The Makropulos Case,” or “The Makropulos Thing” (a direct translation from the play by Karel Capek on which it is based). It was composed between 1923 and 1925 and had its world premiere at the National Theatre in Brno in 1926.

We’re going a bit “colloquial” on this week’s Dress Circle (7/19 7:00 p.m.) as we continue with our look at “I want” songs by turning to songs from a dozen shows that say “I wanna,” and as former English teachers, it really pains us to “wanna” do this.